VESTA is the Roman Goddess of the hearth fire. She is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hestia, and like Hestia, there are few myths associated with Vesta. She was honored in a temple on the Palatine Hill in Rome, in which a sacred fire was tended by her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins. The temple was round with a door facing to the east, and was likely built in the 3rd century BCE. The six Vestal Virgins, who served for thirty years each, made sure that the fire never went out, until they were disbanded in 394 by Emperor Theodosius, after he declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion of the Roman Empire.